CAMPAIGNERS battling to keep their leisure centre open have received £60,000 from the district council.

Keep Leisure in Cricklade (KLIC) have been working hard over recent weeks to win support and funding to save the town's leisure centre for the community after it was slated for closure by North Wiltshire District Council.

Yesterday the council gave KLIC the money, which will be used for the running of the leisure centre.

This was the final hurdle, which needed to be cleared before the group takes over the centre on April 1.

Father-of-two Depak Lal 45, an energy consultant from Cricklade and a member of the KLIC committee, said: "My whole family use the leisure centre all the time, and one of the reasons I moved to the town was because of the centre. I don't want to have to drive seven miles to Swindon every time I want to use the gym.

"I would not have been happy with myself if I had not done my bit to help to keep the leisure centre, and I am delighted that we have done it."

Steve Dye, chairman of the Cricklade Youth football teams, said: "The news is still filtering down to the team managers and the players, but it is fantastic news.

"For weeks the players have been coming up to me and others and asking about where they should go and what they should do, and the future has been so uncertain. We really thought we would have to stop the teams, so it's been a really challenging time for all of us, "We have 240 youngsters playing in the teams, and probably 90 per cent live within walking distance of the leisure centre so losing it would have been tragic."

Alastair Smith, 60, an oil worker who lives in Cricklade, said: "What KLIC have done is a great achievement, but what is needed now is for people to come along and support the leisure centre now more than ever. That way they can make it work in the future."

In the coming days KLIC members will be hitting the streets of Cricklade to offer a new membership scheme for the centre, while a further meeting today between KLIC and North Wiltshire District Council will further firm up the process for the takeover on April 1.

Campaigner Gary Walker, the leading light behind the project, said: "The hard work really begins now for us. Only one of us has experience in the leisure industry so the next few weeks are going to be a real crash course for us.

"Fortunately, the council have given us access to a leisure officer in the council and that will be a huge help in what we are doing."